Emerald Fennell's new film adaptation of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights stars Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi as the tragic lovers Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, emphasizing eroticism over restraint. The R-rated movie reimagines the classic novel with operatic intensity, drawing comparisons to the director's previous work Saltburn. Reviewed in Los Angeles ahead of its Warner Bros. release, the film runs 136 minutes and features songs by Charli xcx.
Emerald Fennell's adaptation of Emily Brontë's 1847 novel Wuthering Heights marks a bold shift from previous screen versions, which ranged from a G-rated 1970 film starring Timothy Dalton to a PG-13 MTV production in 2003 set in a high school. Her R-rated take, screened at Warner Bros. Screening Room 5 in Los Angeles on February 3, 2026, amplifies the story's underlying passions, including physical desire and power dynamics between the leads.
Margot Robbie portrays Catherine Earnshaw, a fiercely independent young woman raised on the Yorkshire moors, who names and bonds with the orphaned Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi), brought home by her father (Martin Clunes) as a "pet." As Catherine confesses to housekeeper Nelly (Hong Chau), "He’s more myself than I am," but adds that marrying him would "degrade" her, prompting Heathcliff's heartbroken departure—framed in silhouette against a crimson sky.
Faced with her family's gambling debts, Catherine marries the stable Edgar Linton (Shazad Latif) at Thrushcross Grange, depicted like a bordello with flesh-colored walls and blood-red floors, contrasting the ominous, Tim Burton-esque Earnshaw estate. Fennell opens the film with creaking ropes and gasping sounds, evoking bondage and erotic suggestion, though she truncates the lovers' consummation to preserve tension.
The director, who wrote and produced alongside Josey McNamara and Robbie, ditches the novel's latter half after a key death, focusing on unspoken desires and revenge. Heathcliff seeks it through Linton's sister Isabella (Alison Oliver), with less devilish menace than in the book. Cinematographer Linus Sandgren captures sensual extremes, from a bed of broken eggs to outdoor self-pleasure, scored by Anthony Willis and featuring Charli xcx's "Chains of Love."
Fennell's style evokes Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea more than Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, blending romance with kinky elements. While some may find it overwrought, it caters to audiences drawn to A24 and Neon's excesses, transforming the romantic fantasy into an erotic one.
